Deng Out as Bulls Battle For Playoffs

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">While the Bulls took the practice floor Monday trying to forget their dismal performance in Saturday?s crucial home loss to Philadelphia, forward Luol Deng was sent to the hospital because he hadn?t shaken all the cobwebs from a mild concussion suffered two days earlier.

The timing of Deng?s injury couldn?t be much worse. The New Jersey Nets visit the United Center tonight having won 15 of 16 and possessing two of the league?s most dangerous wing players in Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson.

?Luol Deng still has some symptoms from his concussion,? trainer Fred Tedeschi said at the Berto Center. ?Primarily a headache. We sent him down to Rush Medical Center to get re-evaluated by Dr. (Kathy) Webber. We?ll just take it from there.?

Tedeschi didn?t want to place a probability on Deng?s availability, but he did say he?d like to see Deng symptom free for at least 12-24 hours. The second-year forward will be re-evaluated this morning.

Deng was injured in a freak collision with teammate Eric Piatkowski during Saturday?s shootaround. The two players were running through plays on opposite ends of the practice court and just happened to crash into each other at midcourt.

?We were running the play hard like we were supposed to,? said Piatkowski, who didn?t think he?d be ready to play tonight. ?Normally there?s not somebody coming from the other direction. You can?t blame anybody. It?s just one of the freakiest things.?

The collision was crazy, but the Bulls? performance in an 89-75 loss to the 76ers that night was downright bewildering. The Bulls shot a season-low 32.6 percent and trailed by 26 points against a team that had lost 13 of its previous 17 games.

?When stuff like that happens, you feel like crud,? said guard Kirk Hinrich, who hit just 2 of 13 shots. ?You try to block it out, but for me it?s impossible.

?I know I?m a better shooter than that, but when stuff like that happens, it baffles me a little bit. I normally shoot the ball with confidence, but for whatever reason I got a little bit shaken the other night.?

A win Saturday would have given the Bulls a 2-game edge for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and left them a half-game behind Milwaukee for the No. 6 seed.

The 76ers (36-41) defeated the Washington Wizards 105-97 at home Monday night to pull a half-game ahead of the Bulls for the eighth spot. Also, the Indiana Pacers (37-40) whipped the visiting New York Knicks 101-82 to pull into a tie with the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Pacers and the Bucks hold the sixth and seventh playoff spots in the East, both 1? games in front of the Bulls.

Coach Scott Skiles didn?t bother to show the players any tape from Saturday?s debacle. The Bulls (35-41) have won six of their last eight, but all eight opponents had sub-.500 records.

?We just sort of look at that as a throwaway game,? Skiles said. ?We don?t want to overanalyze it too much because we only have six to go and don?t want to dwell on it. It was a total departure from the way we have played. So there?s no reason to assume we?re going to continue playing that way.?

?We came out the other night like the pressure was getting to us,? said Ben Gordon, who hit 3 of 10 shots. ?We were too uptight. ? We have to play like it?s fun.?</div>

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